Yes it’s now official, we here at Mobile User have declared 2010 “The Year of the Mobile.” We were thinking of making it the year of the mobile phone but that was just too limiting what with the launch of the iPad. Since Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly said the iPad was “the most important thing I’ve ever done,” we figured we should be flexible in our declaration so as to keep Steve relevant post iPhone.

Market research firm Gartner has reportedly determined that smartphone app download sales will top $6.2 billion and mobile device ad sales will total $600 million this year. But that is only the start of this glorious new era. Gartner says that we are at the beginning a huge growth phase in the mobile industry. By 2013 revenues will skyrocket from 2009’s $4.2 billion, to mind boggling $29.5 billion. That’s an increase of over 700% in four years. Games will be the sector leader, then social apps.

Ladies and gentlemen, what we’ve seen speaks for itself. The Internet has apparently been taken over — ‘conquered’ if you will — by the mobile platform and it’s apps. It’s difficult to tell from our current vantage point whether they will consume all the revenue generated on the Internet or merely enslave us to this new paradigm. One thing is for certain: there is no stopping them; the mobiles will soon be here. And I for one welcome our new gadget overlords. I’d like to remind them that as a trusted web blog personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground texting caves.

photo credit http://www.flickr.com/photos/teresawer/